


The Starving Faithful

by juniorstarcatcher



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 08:53:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5702470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juniorstarcatcher/pseuds/juniorstarcatcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo Ren left one alive. Only one of Luke Skywalker's many apprentices. Entrusted to the newly appointed General Hux for transport, Anen Disra, the odd and enlightened young Jedi, will be the death or the salvation of the ever-growing First Order. But more than that, she will be the death or salvation of its newest General.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_"Let me tell you a story._

_Let me read you a romance._

_I will read._

_You will listen._

_And this terrible night will pass."_

* * *

The port of Bagsho on Nim Drovis is not a place where Anen Disra wants to remain long. Aside from the never-ending rain, the sounds of the locals with their tribal instruments and animals, the force-dead planet keeps her from accessing a part of her which has always been so dear: her force sensitivity.

As the sun begins to rise over the sopping wet streets of Bagsho, the young Jedi apprentice is meditating on her failure. Not just one of the many she has experienced in her life as a pupil of the famed Luke Skywalker, but the biggest failure of all- the one that is still in progress, even in this very moment.

She can't find her sister.

Not that Anen has misplaced her, no. And not even that the silly nit has wandered off in the midst of one of her mind-locking daydreams. Myra Disra has been kidnapped. Something is terribly wrong. And Anen needs to find her. But, three months, seven planets, and two run-ins with bounty hunters into her search, she has come up empty. She has heard not a whisper, not a peep, of her sister's whereabouts, and the days of a million questions and no answers begin to wear on her.

She is a failure. Plain and simple.

The logical side of her mind- the calm, trained side- knows that she isn't a _failure_. She simply isn't a success yet. But the emotional, rational side of her peeks through the blinds she has pulled around her soul, whispering vilely that she is a failure. That she has failed her sister. That she has failed her Master.

But even in the wake of her own failure, Anen is at peace. Master Skywalker taught her well; her mind is clear of all thoughts and her soul is one with The Force. Then, all at once, in the middle of her meditation, that peace is broken as a memory hits her with the impact of a freight train, striking her square between the eyes with the force of a speeding Star Cruiser.

* * *

_"Anen. Come in."_

_She hadn't even raised her hand to knock on the door of Master Luke Skywalker's temple chamber, but he knew she was there anyway. He always did that, using his powers to take his students by surprise- a way of amusing himself, she supposed. With a sigh and a small shake of her head, Anen entered the room. It looked the same way it had since the moment she arrived at the small temple settlement almost twelve years ago- not even a dust speck was out of place. Clutter covered every surface, and her Master somehow managed to find enough room to sit right in the center of it. The aging Master sat on the floor, his eyes closed in silent meditation of his own. Anen stood in the doorway, waiting to be recognized, not wanting to interrupt the peace of another's stillness._

_"It's rude to stare, you know," Master Skywalker said, not opening his eyes or adjusting his position._

_Anen looked down at the hard packed dirt floor, noticing how dirty her boots had become when she spent half the morning pacing up and down the halls, debating whether or not to approach her Master with this problem._

_"I'm sorry, Master Skywalker," she said._

_A smile crossed the older man's face, though his eyes remained closed even as he tutted at her under his breath._

_"No time for apologies when you've spent half the morning wearing out the floorboards, hm?"_

**_So he knows, then_** , _Anen thought to herself._ ** _He knows why I'm here._**

_"You have felt something in The Force. Something that troubles you."_

_It was true. That night, she woke from her normally pleasant slumber with a start as a vision took hold of her mind- her sister, her only blood left in this whole world- being taken by figures cloaked in darkness. And from that moment, her entire world was consumed by the image. It replayed again and again in her head… It disrupted her training, her meditation, her every waking thought. She knew what she had to do. It might kill her, but she knew somewhere in her soul that The Force was calling her. And she had to answer._

_"My sister, Master Skywalker. I think she's been…"_

_She couldn't even form the words. Taken? Stolen? Kidnapped? Coughing to cover her own inability to speak, she interlocked her fingers in an attempt to keep them from shaking._

_"And I have to go to find her," Anen concluded, gulping back any indecision._

_For a long time, there was silence in the Jedi Master's chamber. No words, no sounds, but Anen paid careful attention to Luke's face. Serene and centered though he was, he never had any interest in hiding or burying his emotions. Scrunching his forehead and tightening his jaw, he appeared to be in deep thought about something troubling him._

_And then, he opened his eyes._

_Master Skywalker always had a way of looking at her as though her life were an exciting puzzle that he wanted the two of them to solve together. On any other day, that look might make her feel important, special, even. But today, it made her feel queasy._

_"Did you have a vision?"_

_He knew the answer, but asked the question anyway. It was the way he always taught. Anen nodded, her head heavy and burdened with the weight of her own worries._

_"Where do you think she is?"_

_"By now, she could be anywhere," Anen said, but the end of her sentence hung in the air like an unfinished thought. Luke raised an eyebrow at her._

_"But?" He prompted._

_A storm of conflict rose up in Anen's chest and for once, she did not even try to fight it. After twelve years of training, such control over her emotions came naturally; her training was as apart of her as her very skin. In this moment, though, nothing could save her from feeling precisely what it was that she was feeling: fear. She wanted so desperately to not be wrong. She wanted Master Luke to trust her judgement, she wanted to rescue her sister from whatever disaster had befallen her. Any outcome less than would mean her absolute destruction._

_"…But I don't believe that she's left The Meridian Sector," she concluded._

_Anen knew that she_ **_could_ ** _leave in the dead of the night, abandon her position here like… like_ **_he_ ** _did. (Even now to think his name caused her grief.) But she knew that she would never do something like that. Like Master Skywalker always said: All things are permissible. Not all things are beneficial. She would never have the guts to leave without his blessing._

_Silent deliberation raged on in her Master's head for an immeasurably long stretch of time, and she intently watched every painstaking minute of it. But when he finally speaks,_

_"No. You're needed here," he said, accompanying his dismissive words with a sharp nod of his head that was meant to signify the end of the conversation._

_Disappointment bred in the pit of her stomach, but she flushed it away with thoughts of compassion, of understanding. She knew what this was about; she knew why Master Skywalker did not want her to go. The_ **_he_ ** _that she could not think of, the_ **_he_ ** _that abandoned the order…. Ben Solo. He left like a thief in the night and no one had been able to find him since. His disappearance planted seeds of worry and fear throughout all of Luke's apprentices, and now, it seemed, that same worry and fear blossomed like a weed within The Master himself._

 _"I_ **_need_ ** _to go, Master Luke. You need to let me go. I've learned so much and I-"_

_He cut her impassioned plea off by simply and slowly raising one hand in a "stop" motion._

_"Your training is not complete," he said, his voice still as an undisturbed pond._

_Anen took a brave step towards him and said the one thing she thought might change his mind, opened up the one wound she knew would cause him to bleed a little._

_"I'm not like Ben, Master. I will return," she said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone._

_In all of her years as a Jedi apprentice, Anen had never had a cross word with Luke. They never raised voices, they never fought. So the sound of Master Skywalker's angered voice striking the walls of his chamber sent shockwaves through her entire body._

_"You must complete your training!"_

_The instant the harsh tone escaped his lips, Master Luke softened, his eyes losing their focus and his mind seemingly retreating from the room. He did that sometimes-get that far off look in his eyes, as if he were trying to piece together the half-remembered images from a dream long forgotten. Sometimes Anen wondered where he went when he got lost in his mind. Was he in communication with The Force? Or was he just absorbed in his memories?_

_Clearing his throat as if to wash away the venom he spat only a moment before, Luke looked at his oldest apprentice, his first student. Anen Disra. Powerful in The Force. Devoted, single-minded, in her training. A mentor to the older apprentices and something like a mother to the younger ones. A clever warrior. Not without her weaknesses, of course. She wasn't particularly brave or fast. She was often slow to ferocity in battle. She was distant... absent, sometimes, to the point where he wondered if her mind was completely with her. But, even so, Luke's eldest pupil was the star in his sky, the jewel in his crown. How could he lose her after losing Ben? After his failure with his own nephew?_

_On the other hand, how could he call himself a teacher if he never let his students free? He wanted to be a teacher of young Jedi, not a jailer of them._

_"If you think you must go, then you must," Luke said._

_"I will return," Anen vowed, meaning every syllable._

_She turned to go, taking one last look around his chamber before she did. Though her mouth said that she would someday be back, something in The Fore whispered to her that this would be her last goodbye. Shaking such thoughts from her head, she reached for the door handle, but not before a few parting words from her mentor warmed a part of her soul she wasn't sure she had._

_"May The Force be with you."_

* * *

It is the hurtling nature of this memory that blinds her to the arrival of her guest in the squalid tenement she is renting on Nim Drovis.

No, not guest. _Guests_.

"Anen Disra. The golden child."

Anen would recognize that voice anywhere. The voice of a brother in arms. The voice of a fellow apprentice, a fellow Jedi. The voice of a friend. The voice of…

"Ben," she says, her words made of the brittle tones of indecision.

Should she be happy that he's found her? Should she be furious and demand that he return to the Temple immediately? Should she be frightened? Why has he come? And why now? Eyes opening and her chin tilting upward to look at him, she surveys him. A set of dark eyes blaze back at her, his face contorted with a discrete but unmistakable fury. Anen recognizes him as the same man who disappeared from the Temple months ago, but she wishes she didn't; even without her force sensitivity, she can tell that there is something fractured in his very soul.

"Kylo Ren," he corrects her.

Kylo Ren? The name is foreign, unreal to Anen's ears.

But then it strikes her. The pieces of this surreal puzzle fall exactly into place as she remembers the words of Luke's teachings. _The Dark Side is powerful, seductive. Anyone can fall_.

Ben has fallen. _Ben has fallen_. The words repeat themselves over and over in Anen's skull, rattling around like bones in a fortune teller's cup, but they make less and less sense every time she thinks them.

"Why have you come here?" Anen asks, her voice as smooth as glass, unaffected by the emotions boiling in her blood. She will not let Ben's decision to lose his way corrupt her own walk down the path of the light side.

Ben nearly struts across the dirty floor to Anen's side, unaware that the dirty floor covered the bottom of his boots with dirt. Anen cringes when he steps on a line of passing bugs with a _crunch;_ Ben does not notice the insignificant massacre. Without bending down, he extends a small holo disk to her.

"To show you something," he says, cordially, as if he were giving her a gift.

Heart bouncing in her chest, Anen reaches for the holo disk; she does not attempt to play it, but simply holds it in her hand. Her greatest fears live in that holo. Could Ben have something to do with her sister? Is that why he is here? Has he been tracking her?

"Play it."

The command is so dark, so imperative, that Anen feels no choice but to comply.

As the blue light flickers, images flash across her walls… Images that make no sense…

The Temple….

It's raining…

The apprentices- all of them, of every age- stand outside in the mud…

Lightsabers ignited…

Only to be cut down by Ben and a sea of cloaked figures in masks.

Children. Her friends. Lying dead in puddles of rain.

Ben... Her _friend_ Ben...slaughtered… _everyone_ …

"…No…." She tries to speak, but no sound comes out even as she mouths the words, "It isn't true… It can't be-"

Tearing her eyes away from the lifeless bodies flickering in her hand, Anen looks up at Ben. Kylo. Kylo Ren. She searches for remorse, for an apology, for guilt. Anything to tell her that he made a mistake. That he's come to her for help.

She finds nothing but a proud gleam in his impossibly dark eyes.

In that moment, Anen feels something she had perhaps never felt in her life. And she lets it consume her: rage. Pure, unadulterated, sickening rage. One sweep of her arms brings the lightsaber from her waist to the ready, only to be blocked by Ben's lightsaber. The blades clash recklessly- his green striking her blue- as vomit and tears rise up in Anen's system. He killed _children_. He killed her _friends_. And she wasn't there to stop him. She _failed_ the family that has taken care of her for so long. Muscles in her arms rippling, she lets out a fierce yowl as she throws Ben from her, pushing him back against the wall of the tenement. She has always been stronger than him, and in this moment, she shows it.

But the bastard doesn't slump to the floor like she hoped. He doesn't even wince in pain or struggle to regain his stance. Instead, he smiles. Back at the Temple, Ben used to smile often. Though not a particularly big or bright smile, it was always warm and thoughtful. The smile that he flashes now is malicious and cold. Like a monster out of one of Master Luke's stories. All at once, the man who was her friend is now a stranger, a foreign being who has somehow betrayed her like a brother.

"Ren!" He bellows, the sound shaking the paper-thin walls.

It's as if that one word opened up the skies of Anen's entire world. The same phantoms from the holo recording, the men in the black cloaks, descend on her room and surround her before she can even swing her lightsaber.

"Drop it!" Ben says, triumphant, "Drop it now!"

A scan of the room tells Anen that she has exactly no other option. She cannot fight her way out of this room; to do so would mean her certain death. She cannot break past the circle of figures that loom ever closer by the second; to do so would mean her certain death. She is trapped. She has failed.

So, with tears running down her cheeks and defeat filling her heart, Anen places her lightsaber on the floor.

 _Master Luke_ …. she thinks to herself as they begin to close in on her, knowing he cannot hear her desperate plea, _What do I do now?_

* * *

The First Order is young. Not just in years since its founding, but in its very personnel. Its youth can be defined by the newest General, given his first command right out of the Academy on Ord Mantel.

General Hux is standing on the Destroyer's bridge, looking out over his new domain. The floors are polished to a high mirror shine, his boots reflect his perfectly stern expression. The center of his command stretches out in front of him, filled with his impossibly busy and disciplined inferiors working diligently at nav screens and communications outlets. Perhaps he should feel small, humbled, by the vastness of this ship and the endless space it occupies, but instead, he feels, for the first time in his life, _powerful_. The feeling is intoxicating. It warms his blood and sends a haze over his gaze, spreads his shoulders and raises his chin. He orders about lifeforms whose names he'll never know. He can bend systems to his will. He is among the stars.

He feels like a God.

The feeling is cracked- not broken, but cracked- by a hail on his comm.

"General Hux."

He fights back a sigh and struggles to maintain his professional composure. _Kylo Ren_. The Supreme Leader's new pet. The petulant child- though not much younger than Hux himself- seems consistent in only two things: temper tantrums and condescending commands. Today, it seems like Hux will be the recipient of the latter.

"You are to transport a prisoner. Divert directly to the The Meridian Sector. By orders of The Supreme Leader," Ren says, leaving no room for debate.

Hux would like to remind Snoke's project that Hux doesn't answer to him, but he bites his tongue. It's only his first day on command, after all. Taking such liberties hasn't been yet earned.

"Brief on the prisoner?" Hux asks, clipped and curt.

A pause. Then, Ren drags a body into frame. Hux surveys her through the fuzzy blue holographic projection. Dressed for a forest, barefoot and dirty, the young bears all of the hallmarks of Ren's true enemies- The Jedi. And though her captor drags her by the hair, she does not struggle. She does not yelp in pain or stare defiantly toward Hux's open gaze. She looks... Peaceful. At ease. A smile stretches across Kylo Ren's face, and he gleefully answers Hux's question.

"She's the bait for Luke Skywalker."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter! This story is a shameless AU. I'm really fascinated by the redemption of characters, and I just don't think Hux is a redeemable character in current canon, so I wanted to explore something different! In this story, Hux will meet Anen at the beginning of his first command, before he has been totally indoctrinated by The First Order. I hope you all like it! Please send me some comments with your thoughts on this first chapter! I'm hoping the second one will be out in the next day or so!


	2. Chapter Two

In a darkened chamber on The Destroyer, The Knights of Ren are awaiting their leader. After their success at the Temple and their retrieval of the Disra girl, only one thing remains: the capture of Luke Skywalker. They stand in silent formation, waiting like foot soldiers, until a hail comes in on the massive communications system in the center of the room. No one moves forward to answer it, for they know only one of them will be spoken to. Kylo Ren takes a step forward, answers the hail, and the Knights kneel before their Master: Supreme Leader Snoke. His massive visage fills the room, and the Knights feel insignificant in his presence.

"Anen Disra is in custody," Kylo Ren says, his eyes downcast, his mask in his left hand and his lightsaber in his right.

Kylo will never grow used to the feeling of the Supreme Leader's gaze squarely upon him. The sensation no longer causes fear or anxiety to rise up within him, but it still distinctly unsettles him. His head rushes as if he just stepped off of a ship fresh from a hyperspace jump- a little starsick.

"Good… Very good… You have done well, Kylo Ren. Lead your Knights well," The hologram of Snoke says, the image flickering from the thin connection.

It is the highest praise Ren has ever received from his Master, and he struggles to keep his emotions in check. The smile that twitches the edge of his lips is the most difficult to swallow, and he beats back a wave of pride that threatens to overtake him. He knows that this cannot last forever; there can only be two. A master and an apprentice. If Kylo is to be an apprentice, he cannot lead The Knights. It's that simple. Bargaining down from elation, the young man diplomatically tiptoes around the praise and returns to the objective of his mission.

"She will lead us to Luke Skywalker," he says, still not looking up at the hologram before him, as if he is not yet worthy to look upon the eyes of the being who saved him from The Light.

The Knights of Ren watch with discomfort as the Supreme Leader's lips file themselves into a tight smile. It should be an encouraging sight, a reassurance of the importance of today's successes. But, instead, it sets all of them ill at ease.

"And then, at last, you will be my apprentice," Snoke says.

Apprentice? This is the first any of the Knights of Ren have heard about Snoke adopting an apprentice.

"Yes, Supreme Leader," Kylo Ren says.

"Are you ready?" Snoke questions.

For the first time, Kylo Ren braves a glance up at the Holo of Supreme Leader Snoke. It looks down upon him like the eyes of some ancient, mythical God, questioning everything within him. His loyalty. His dedication. His very soul. From that cavern in his chest where Kylo Ren hides all of his feelings, he withdraws the memories of the last few days. Taking Anen hostage. Burning The Temple to the ground. Lights leaving the eyes of children as he ran them through with his lightsaber. Death and destruction and massacre and horror.

It must be worth something. He has to _make it_ worth something.

He just has to.

"Yes, Supreme Leader," The young man repeats as he picks up his mask, sliding it onto his face.

Snoke's words are the last thing most of Kylo Ren's brothers in arms ever hear.

"Then kill them. All of them."

* * *

"General?"

General Hux is staring out of the viewport of his cabin when his thoughts are disturbed by the subordinate's entrance.

"What?"

He knows the ensign's name- Rixeed- but he refuses to use it. Gone are the days when he has to hand anyone respect; gone are the days when he has to care what anyone else thinks of him. And besides, he has other things on his mind. Other things weighing on the General's shoulders. Things more important than this ensign's name.

For the last hour, he has been staring out of his window, surveying the stars. All movement in this sector has been frozen, due to close-moving Resistance ships, but it isn't the embargo that has him troubled. Nor is it the arrival and subsequent disappearance of the Knights of Ren. Instead, it's-

"It's the prisoner," Rixeed explains, waiting for permission to continue.

Hux was not there when the prisoner was brought on board, not there to watch her carried from the planet's surface to The Destroyer by a small ferry ship. Instead, he was on The Bridge, having staffed out the job to some pale-faced lieutenant. However, from the moment he felt the ship's docking bay doors open, Hux was rocked with a strange and unwelcome sensation. He cannot put a finger on the sensation, what it is that he's feeling, but the air feels… Thicker. Filled with uncertainty.

Had he made a mistake, letting this young Jedi on the ship?

He stood at his window, examining that question from every angle as though it were a fine and intricate sculpture, until Rixeed approached him, and even now, it gnaws at him, distracting him from his intruder.

"…General?" Rixeed prompts, wondering just what pulled the other man from this conversation.

"Yes, what?" Hux snaps, finally turning to look at the man.

Unconsciously, Rixeed takes a cautious step back as the other man's temper flares. Though his time in command has been short, the General has developed a reputation for being a man not to be trifled with.

"The prisoner, sir. She's…" Rixeed hesitates and Hux fights every urge to order him from his cabin. The young man seems to be searching for a delicate way of describing whatever it is that has been done, "unsettling the Stormtroopers. They won't go near her."

Hux scoffs and returns to his window, to his view of the stars. This is no concern of his. The prisoner is no concern of his. He is meant to transport her wherever Snoke commands her. That is all. Nothing more. In fact, it would be better for all parties involved if Hux never hears of or from her.

It's not that Hux is a superstitious man; not a bone in his body believes in the fanciful magic talk that Kylo Ren often indulges in. It's just that Hux has more important things on his mind. His first command will need to be executed to perfection; no small distractions can get in his way.

"Bring that to their commander. I have a ship to run," he says with a wave of his gloved hand.

But Rixeed has an answer to Hux's disinterest. In the viewport's glass, Hux can see the reflection of the young man; he manages to mask his fear, but barely.

"Their commander won't go near her either. And The Knights of Ren are busy in the Comm Chamber."

Almost imperceptibly, General Hux's eyebrows knit inward in deep thought. She's one lone Jedi in chains. What could she possibly be doing?

* * *

"She's down there, General. Detention Cell 2186. Are you armed?" A faceless, nameless Stormtrooper inquires, as he hovers near the end of the hall, unwilling to go any closer to the prisoner, whose renown has, by now, spread across the ship and through the ranks.

Vowing to one day find a crop of Stormtroopers who aren't completely _worthless_ , Hux locks his jaw and keeps his expression withdrawn. With long-legged strides, he marches down the hallway alone, taking off his leather gloves one finger at a time. He considers himself above the petty fear that controls seemingly everyone else on his ship, but it does not mean his curiosity is dead. What could possibly have scared off so many? What could she have done to them through the walls of her cell?

And could the same be done to him?

Cell 2186 is so peaceful that Hux almost passes it. Any images conjured in his mind of a woman pulling furniture out of the walls and screaming hysterically are wiped away as he peers through the translucent electronized cell door. This… This is what his soldiers are afraid of?

In the center of the cell, the young woman Hux encountered on Ren's holo sits, levitating no more than five inches from the ground. Her eyes are closed, her breathing silent, and her demeanor decidedly less traumatized than Hux imagined. He examines her intently, his stare unabashed as she seems to be focused on nothing else but the inside of her own eyelids. The young woman has been changed out of her robes, fitting instead into awkwardly hanging prisoner's fatigues. She is not… unpretty… Hux decides. She has not been bathed or made any more presentable than the last time he saw her via holodisk, but all the same, she's not the sort of ugly monster that The First Order made the Jedi Knights out to be. No scars, no distinguishing marks or tattoos. Humanoid. Exceedingly plain, now that he gives her a second and third look. She's not much to speak of, not much to examine, and yet the General feels as though the more he beholds her, the less he understands. Feeling affronted and endlessly curious and furious at himself for being so, he narrows his eyes at the figure and her magic trick, focusing all of his energy on trying to fathom her into an understandable creature.

She's a prisoner of the First Order, captured by The Knights of Ren and en route to Supreme Leader Snoke. Where is her fear? Where is her rage? Where is her sense of self-preservation? Hux cannot find traces of anything close to a human reaction from her; she looks as at ease as if she were sitting alone in her own bedroom. Annoyance at his own discomfort rises in his chest, and he can no longer stare at her in silence; he must hear her speak.

"Are you quite finished?" He asks, unable to keep his tone sharp and professional, feeling the temperature under his collar rise by a degree or three.

The prisoner does not answer, does not move, or acknowledge his words.

"I said-"

But before he could get the rest of his thought out, her body descended from its levitating state gently, like a feather wafting down to the ground. His fascination grows as she unfolds her body, opens her eyes, and turns their piercingly open gaze squarely on him.

"Hello…" She says, the sound of her voice nothing more than the flap of a bird's wing. Trailing off, she looks down at his chest and confirms his rank, "General."

If General Hux was unsettled by her when her eyes were closed and her lips unmoving, now- bearing the full weight of her stare and the sound of that voice- he is downright disturbed. There is no barrier of modesty separating them; she drinks him in with the uncurious, unaffected stare of a man who has a perfect sabacc hand or a crone who can see into the future. _Can Jedi predict the future? Is she seeing mine right now?_ Hux wonders to himself, before dismissing the very idea as the preposterous musing of a scared child.

When he walked down the hall to meet this prisoner, he thought he knew everything- her future, her fate-, but, for the first time in his life, Hux is in the presence of someone who seems to know more than he does.

"Name," he manages to choke out, somehow managing to make the word a command.

With no point in lying and waves of peace washing over her like warm bath water, the young woman answers his question honestly, with the only name she's ever had.

"Anen Disra."

There is prisoner procedure to follow, and General Hux tries to follow it to the letter. Typing on a datapad, he inputs her information as she gives it. Age. _20_. Planet of Origin. _Nyemari, Meridian Sector_. Family History. _Parents enslaved on Kiros, sister missing._ He takes down her dictates, letter for letter, but once again, is left with more questions than answers. Tucking the datapad under his arm and straightening his spine, Hux draws in a harsh breath; he must regain control. She is a prisoner and nothing more; she cannot assault his senses this way, cannot throw his mind into this kind of chaos.

"Do you know why you're being detained today, Anen Disra?" He says, finally harsh, the voice of a true general.

A stab of pain through her chest, which is quickly soothed by a balm of serenity; Master Luke did not die so that she would give into her misery, her anger. Still, the memories of the slaughters are fresh wounds, and they bleed a little as her words pick at them.

"I'm the last of my kind," she says, seemingly lost somewhere out of Hux's reach.

He furrows his brow. Does she not know about Luke Skywalker? How could she not know that he survived? No, no. It isn't his concern. His concern is ensuring the cooperation of the prisoner and her safe transportation to Snoke. That is all. But... He cannot help himself but to speak again...

"You don't seem upset," he intones, flatly, hoping she does not spy the interest in his statement.

Something strange happens in that moment. Something strange and simple and terrifying. The young Jedi _smiles_. Small and assured, the smile breaks the plane of her face, warming her features. She believes what she says next, with all her heart.

"I rejoice for those who have joined The Force," Anen says.

Those _damn_ eyes of hers... Why can't she look away from him? What does she think she's doing by looking at him as though she's looking straight through him? As if she's seeing the ghosts of those she lost and they all look pleased to see her. Unable to break away from her open book of a face without losing pieces of his pride, the General tries to force her hand, to encourage some real feelings from her.

"You are being transported to your execution," Hux barks.

Anen's smile does not falter. In fact, it might actually have grown.

"Then I will join them soon," she says.

She does not wish for death; Anen knows better than that. However, the idea that she might be one with her friends, her Order, once more, is almost too wonderful an idea to bear. It sounds like _rest_. And how nice it would be to just rest for a moment.

"You have been disturbing your guards. How?" The General asks, folding his arms over his chest and leaning back on his hips, the picture of confidence.

"I have done nothing but meditate since I've been here."

"Magic tricks?"

The smile dissolves from the young woman's face and her expression darken over. Hux smirks to himself; he seems to have found the weak spot in her training: her pride.

"Not magic tricks," she replies, not letting whatever emotion rising up in her bubble over to the surface.

Hux has to give her credit where it is due; the woman knows how to control herself.

"Have you always been so..." He searches for the word, "Composed?"

She considers him for a long minute, then decides to speak, bowing her head in deference. A little joke won't kill her, will it?

"If it would make your foot soldiers more comfortable, I will cry myself to sleep."

Does Hux spy a mischievous glint in her eye, he wonders to himself. As soon as the thought crosses his mind, however, she is back to that removed, knowing expression that so distresses him. There is nothing more for him to say; he has asked the prisoner every question that he can, and has gotten her assurance that she will stop tormenting the Stormtroopers. And yet... something in him wants to remain here. He flushes the desire away by repeating that word over and over again: _prisoner, prisoner, prisoner, prisoner, prisoner, prisoner..._

A nod of his head is all she gets as a goodbye from him before he takes off down the hallway.

"And General?" She calls after him.

Against his better judgement, Hux turns back toward her; he is once again caught in the trap of her eyes.

"Yes."

Whether or not the General knows it, his Force presence is obtrusive and boisterous. It practically screams to her from across The Destroyer, and in her meditation, his thoughts insidiously sliding between the cracks of her mental walls. Earlier today, when he spent so much self-centered time thinking as he stared at the stars through his viewport, she could feel him as clearly as she felt herself.

"You _did_ make a mistake letting me on this ship."

He turns away on his heel quickly, and perhaps her mind is playing tricks on her, but Anen is almost certain she catches the faint memory of a smile on The General's face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think? Please leave me some kudos or comments. I was so happy with the response from last chapter, and I would love to hear people's thoughts on this one! Hope you all enjoying!


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